eyes of hers, practically daring Kelly to recall that Iris had been the one to impose the added year.
“Oh, I’m just running my mouth. You know that.”
Kelly’s innocent grin was getting a workout that day, and the slightly older witch clearly saw right through it. There was a moment of tension between them, then Ryan clapped his hands and leaned in with a wicked gleam.
“Ohmigod, are you guys going to fight? Please say yes! I love it when there’s drama at a thing like this. Baby showers can be so tame.”
“Fight?” Kelly dissolved into laughter. “Sorry to disappoint you.”
A tray of drinks wandered past, and she scooped up two of whatever cocktail was making the rounds.
“No hard feelings here,” she said, downing the first one in a single swallow. “Just blowing off steam.”
“Not even that much,” Iris smiled.
She tickled her fingers at the baby in her arms, and the little stunner grabbed one of the exquisitely manicured digits and crammed it into her mouth. The domesticity of it settled uneasily under Kelly’s skin. It seemed like everyone she knew was either getting married or having babies. Or both.
“Anyway,” she said, lifting the second of her drinks. “I guess my only gripe is that I’m twenty-five and still being treated like a child.”
“Then stop acting like one.”
Iris's tone wasn’t meant to wound, Kelly was certain, but it stopped the second cup right at the brink of her lips. She cut her eyes up, but Iris was already sauntering away. Malicious or not, her work there was done.
Before Kelly could let herself get too bent out of shape over it, her phone vibrated in her pocket. It was a number she didn’t recognize, so she let it go through to voicemail. If it’s somebody important, they’ll leave a message. If not, fuck ‘em.
For a late afternoon shower, things ran pretty late. That’s what happened when you made a lot of free hooch available to people who needed to blow off some steam. The whole thing rattled along beautifully, but after nearly two hours, Kelly was feeling decidedly over all the baby stuff. Armloads of clothes and toys and teething goodies had been foisted upon Cora. While adorable, it was a lot.
Clambering out into the hall, she was finally able to suck in a breath that didn’t have the word ‘baby’ infusing it. Just standing in that room would be enough to make anybody pregnant—even Ryan.
There was a light movement at one end of the corridor and Kelly started slightly, realizing she wasn’t alone. At the far end of the hall was a security guard. Even with her eyes slightly goggled from some varsity-level drinking, her jaw dropped. Whoever he was, he was the single hottest security guard she’d ever laid eyes on.
Scratch that. He was one of the single hottest men she’d ever laid eyes on.
Calm down, girl. She squared herself for seduction. You got this.
After deploying her innocent face so much over the course of the evening, it was a blessed relief to slip into something a bit more bewitching. Smiling with just a glint of invitation, she waggled her fingers at him. He held his place, his eyes shining back at her across the distance.
Jackpot! she told herself. He’s totally into you. Okay. Keep calm. Let’s just walk down there and… I don’t know. Flash him or something.
Before she could tumble drunkenly into what was bound to be a mistake, a hand grasped her upper arm. Spinning around, she found herself face-to-face with Ryan, who was every bit as much into the booze as she was.
“Kelly, I don’t want to freak you out or anything, but they just busted out a whole new box of liquor bottles. You’re not gonna make me do this alone, are you?”
Stealing a single glance back down the hallway to see which route her evening was going to take, Kelly was a little disappointed to find that the stupidly good-looking security guard was gone. Problem solved. She turned back to her friend and could already feel the three-day hangover waiting on the other side of this night.
“Let’s do this!”
She let out a cackle, Ryan answered with a whoop, and they had the best time of their lives. Or so she was told.
Two
“Why is it that everyone likes to schedule things in the morning?”
Kelly huffed out a hard breath and sipped the dregs of mud-thick coffee from a paper cup. Sure, she had shouted it, but the windows were closed so nobody could hear her. She